Every April, people throughout North, Central, and South America celebrate Pan American Day. The roots of Pan American Day go back to 1890, when the First International Conference of American States convened to establish the International Union of American Republics. In 1930, the 24 countries of the Pan American Union’s governing board adopted a resolution to commemorate that first meeting; Pan American Day was born! A few years later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted the importance of the Good Neighbor Policy. When Roosevelt delivered his speech, few would have guessed that, just a few years later, Donald Duck would become an "ambassador at large" to facilitate U.S. policy.

As a diplomatic strategy, the Good Neighbor Policy increased in importance in the years leading up to World War II. As the Nazi propaganda machine became a serious threat, the United States was compelled to develop its own campaign to strengthen support for South America. From the early 1930s to the 1950s, Hollywood increased the number of movies featuring Central and South American as part of a diplomatic gesture toward the Good Neighbor Policy.

In the years that followed, the Disney studio developed books, film shorts, and comic books that celebrated the people of Central and South America. Saludos Amigos was released in 1942. In it, Donald Duck played a bumbling American tourist traveling around South America with a new friend, José Carioca, a Brazilian parrot. The film was an overwhelming success in both North and South America. Who would have guessed that the Good Neighbor Policy would be carried out by a duck?

Adapted from https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/donald-duck-diplomat